The instant invention relates to a dispensing stopper for sealing the necks of bottles, and more particularly to an improved dispensing stopper which is capable of adjusting the flow rate of fluids contained within the bottle.
Combined caps and dispensers are generally known, but they have, in practice, been found to have many disadvantages. Thus, many of the known devices cannot perform the bottle sealing function and be regulatable to insure a wide range of controlled discharge of the container to which they are applied, while others are complicated and expensive to manufacture.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,167,476 and 1,777,826, dispensing stoppers are disclosed which feature diametrically opposed air channels and pouring grooves axially aligned at the periphery of the stopper. However, the dispensing stoppers disclosed in these patents, as well as many other prior art devices, require that the fluid in the container flow through a channel, so that the rate of flow of the fluid is limited by the cross-sectional area of the channel. The instant invention overcomes this problem of limited fluid flow rate by providing a bottle dispensing stopper which is capable of adjusting the flow rate between a fully sealed condition on the one hand and on the other hand a wide range of flow rates entirely independent of and not limited by the cross-sectional area of any axial groove or channel through which the liquid must flow. This is accomplished by providing an internally hollow stopper (rather than the solid stoppers of the above-cited patents) which includes an axial slot, rather than a channel or groove, through which the liquid flows. Provision of the axially extending slot results in a pouring opening the size of which depends entirely on the length of the slot exposed, i.e., the axial position of the stopper.